Year 6 SATs

Today is the final day of year 6 SAT exams and my eleven year old daughter, Anna Grace, is looking forward to the weekend when she can finally relax. She’s been ‘revising’ (the British term for studying) for weeks and feeling the pressure. Not from us. I really could care less about these exams. I care about her and how she feels and how hard she’s worked. Last week she was pretty stressed out about it and spent most evenings in her room revising, reading and mentally preparing.  She’s had some additional stress as well because her teacher put her down to take level 6 English exams on top of her level 5 exams. So she’s very worried that she won’t score well on those. I feel pretty sure that she will.

When my older son took the year 6 SATs, I wasn’t sure what it all entailed so I read up on them and looked at parent blogs and posts. There is no consensus about year 6 SATs. Some parents think they are valuable tests or that parents should push their children to achieve higher levels. Some parents don’t value the tests at all. Same goes for schools. Some put emphasis on them, some don’t. The school my daughter is in started to prepare them for the SATs in November and from March they’ve been doing mock exams and ‘revising’ techniques. All this week they’ve put on a breakfast session where children can go in early, eat breakfast with their peers and ‘revise’ and to mentally prepare themselves for the day of exams. They even brought in a yoga for children instructor to do a session with them to teach them exercises which help them breathe and relax. It’s a nice holistic approach and enjoyable for the children.

I do like the way the school and her teacher have encouraged them and ensured they feel ready and prepared. I also like the fact that she’s been pushed to achieve a higher level because she responds well to high expectations and I’m certain she has done well on the exams. However, I’m not overly keen on the exams themselves. From what I can see, there is no real reason for them at this age other than to create statistics for government and school officials and create league table competition between schools. I also don’t see the point if the results of the exams don’t have much bearing on their moving up to high school. Their SAT scores were never discussed again nor have any of the high schools asked Sam what his scores were. Furthermore, why are the national level expectations so low? If my daughter is doing L5 and L6 exams why is the expected national average only L4? Does that mean the level my daughter is doing is way above average or is it just some kind of trick to make parents think their children are achieving higher than their ‘level’? It’s still very much an unknown entity to me and another aspect of the school system here which is so very different.

My advice to other parents who have all this to come is to be very encouraging and supportive but approach the whole year 6 SATs in a relaxed manner. Don’t get stressed about it and don’t put any extra pressure on them. They will get enough of that from their teachers. Be there for them to talk about it, help them revise, give them the environment they need to prepare themselves. Just remember, it’s not a ‘make or break’ moment for your child and the most important thing is that they feel happy and confident in school because that’s what will help them to do well and achieve their potential.

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Meghan Peterson Fenn is the author of Bringing Up Brits and co-author of Inspiring Global Entrepreneurs with Heidi Mulligan Walker. Meghan is also the Director and Chief Designer at her own design company, White Ochre Design Ltd. And, she is an award winning expat blogger.